Cole, Ann

Ann Cole was the daughter of George Cole, printer and engraver, at 30 Kirby Street (also called Great Kirby Street), Hatton Garden. A William Cole, his relation, was a printer/engraver at the Crown, Great Kirby Street, c. 1765, though by the early 1790s operating in Newgate Street. George Cole died in January 1795, aged 72, thus leaving his daughter in control of the house and the business, which led to her decision to take in a boarder, which was Mary Hays. Miss Cole was listed as an engraver/printer at 22 Hatton Garden in 1802, where Mary Hays also lives for a time with her. Hays lived with one more time, c. 1819-20, at 1 Upper Cumming Street, Pentonville. It is likely the Coles were Dissenters, probably Baptists or Independents and would have been known to the Hays or Dunkin families prior to Mary Hays's departure from Gainsford Street. At that time, no single woman would have lived with strangers unless she had no family whatsoever, nor, even the strict allegiance of the Hays and Dunkin families to religious Dissent, would Mary Hays have been allowed to live with a family outside the "household of faith," despite her personal avowal of Unitarianism at that time.